Torture and broader human rights violations in Iran

Torture and broader human rights violations in Iran.

Iran’s state security apparatus employs systematic physical, sexual, and psychological torture alongside broader human rights violations as an intentional mechanism of population control and political repression.

State Organs and Objectives of torture

Torture and forced compliance are carried out by several security and intelligence agencies, such as the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS / Ettala’at), the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Basij militia, and specialized police units like the Guidance Patrol (Morality Police) and Public Security Police.

The main goal of interrogations and torture is not just to cause physical pain, but to break a person’s psychological strength, damage their sense of self and family, and force them to give televised "confessions" that are later used as evidence in Revolutionary Courts.

Physical methods of Torture

Detainees are often brutally beaten, have their heads slammed against walls, and are flogged with multi-tailed leather whips or heavy hoses.

Social activist Roya Heshmati, for example, received 74 lashes with a multi-tailed leather whip for resisting dress codes.

In some prisons, interrogators use special whips called "Zolfaghar" on prisoners’ feet, thighs, and backs.

Interrogation Practices:

"Football" A tactic where multiple guards surround a stripped prisoner, continuously beating, kicking, and throwing them around in a circle while mocking them.

Prisoners are forced to stand on one leg for hours with their arms raised, and are beaten if they lose balance or lower their arms.

"Chicken Kebab" involves tying a prisoner’s hands and feet, throwing them to the ground, and flogging them over and over.

Prisoners are exposed to extremely cold rooms without clothes or blankets, given electric shocks to sensitive areas, forced to listen to loud radio noise, deprived of sleep, and denied access to toilets until they wet themselves.

Sexual and Gender-Based violence

State agents commit rape—vaginal, anal, and oral—against female and male detainees, including adults and children as young as 12. These assaults are carried out with objects like batons, bottles, hosepipes, or by the agents themselves.

Other forms of sexual abuse and intimidation include forced nudity, sometimes filmed, groping, applying ice, needles, or electric shocks to testicles, shaving women’s hair by force, making prisoners dance during interrogations, and threatening rape against detainees or their families.

Psychological abuse and Detention conditions

Some prisoners are held for months in solitary confinement, locked in dark, cramped, and airless cells that are sometimes former toilets, with no access to fresh air, light, or basic hygiene.

Prisoners are often denied legal counsel, family visits, or phone calls for long periods. They are also deliberately refused medical care for serious injuries or infections caused by torture.

Security forces often threaten, harass, or arrest family members to pressure political activists or detainees into submission or silence.

Targeted Groups and broader Human Rights issues

Ethnic minorities, especially Kurds, Ahwazis, and Balochs, as well as non-Shia religious minorities, face harsher treatment, longer periods in solitary confinement, and systematic violence outside the law.

Women’s rights activists, teachers, journalists, political dissidents, and peaceful protesters are often arrested without cause and charged with serious crimes like moharebe ("enmity against God"), which can result in the death penalty.

People who have sought asylum abroad and are sent back to Iran are often detained, questioned about their activities and loyalty, and subjected to severe torture after their return.

Iran has one of the highest execution rates in the world. Many people are sentenced to death after unfair trials in Revolutionary Courts, which do not allow public access, independent lawyers, or fair trial protections.